Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Rumours of Fleetwood Mac’s Emily Gervers at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. April 2019. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Time has not yet been called on the story of Fleetwood Mac, there is always one more chapter being written, one more footnote being slotted in, one extra paragraph to be prepared, for a group that is rightly hailed as one of the all-time greats of Rock, they also know how to keep the fans guessing on what drama will come to light next; it is in that which keeps the whole performance as electrifying and as dynamic as watching a meteor shower blaze across the night sky.

To capture even the sound of the band is to be considered to have been touched by a certain musical mysticism, the raw emotion that saw songs such as Daddy and Man of the World become institutions is not for the faint-hearted and yet in the hands of Rumours of Fleetwood Mac that heart should be considered to beat stronger than the pulse of the very Earth under our feet.

Across two perfectly delivered sets, songs from almost each incarnation of Fleetwood Mac were touched upon, prised open for the audience inside the Philharmonic Hall to marvel and praise as if they had been given a peek into the realm of the everlasting, a moment touching the hands of a creator and the sparks that surely fly.

For Jess Harwood, James Harrison, Emily Gervers, Allan Cosgrove, Scott Poley, Etienne Girard and Dave Goldberg, coming to Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall is not only a case of returning home, to perform in front of family, friends and those that let the infectious sound they reproduce with absolute clarity get into their blood and soul. It is the place where magic happens, where albums such as Rumours and Tango in the Night are lauded and the genius of Peter Green and Lyndsey Buckingham are passionately extoled, where the poise of Christine McVie is rightly shown as one of the great songwriters of her time, where the effervescence of Mick Fleetwood, the stability of John McVie and the virtue of one of the most iconic women in rock can stand side by side in unison; it is to this that Liverpool’s music lovers come out in force and where a kind of musical rapture is unfolded.

Songs such as You Make Loving Fun, Songbird, the drama of The Chain and Gold Dust Woman, Big Love, Black Magic Woman, The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown), the sensual beauty of Albatross, the anger and indignation of Oh Well, Seven Wonders, Landslide, Little Lies, Everywhere, Don’t Stop Believing and the utter majesty of Tusk, the seven strong team of Rumours of Fleetwood Mac brought spectacle, excitement and the very essence of phenomenon to the Philharmonic stage.

Rumours of Fleetwood Mac do more than replicate the music of an era, they breathe with style and pageantry all that made Fleetwood Mac the marvel they became, from the Blues era in which they outsold The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, through to the theatre of the 1970s and the excess of the 1980s, all is seen on stage through the lens of observation and intimacy. A highlight of the year, Rumours of Fleetwood Mac deliver the epitome of accomplishment.

Ian D. Hall